Time is a fundamental constraint for all human endeavors, and the primary source of revenue for businesses that charge clients per unit of time. Knowing where time is spent is crucial for any productivity analysis, whether on a professional or a personal level. Manual methods for capturing time, such as journals, time cards and logs, were used by professionals for many years, but in the recent past automated tools have been developed to support this process.
The basic data item that must be captured to begin any time analysis is a time increment, which denotes a time segment during which a particular person was dedicated to a particular task. After defining task categories for which time will be collected, a person then creates time increment records, typically by using one of two methods.
In the first method, time increments are recorded after the fact based on estimates. An example of this method is a project management software package that allows its users to allocate time spent on tasks over a large time interval, perhaps a whole week. For example, consultants working on a software project use the project management software at the end of the workweek to record the tasks to which they dedicated time during the previous week. In this method, there is no direct capture of the time spent and the information generated is generally imprecise.
In the second method, time increment data is captured directly by interacting with software running on a desktop or hand-held computer platform that allows the user to start and stop a timer at the same time that the task starts and ends. This “real-time” capture is much more accurate than the previous method, because the time increment record is captured when the task is performed and an automatic clock is used to compute the interval rather than a human estimate. However, using a computer as a capture device is inconvenient for a variety of reasons that will be discussed below.
Once captured with either of the above methods, time increment records can be summarized in order to generate a variety of productivity analyses or billing reports. However, when an inaccurate capture method is used, such as recording hours at the end of the week, any analysis generated is purely an approximation.
These prior methods have the two major problems of accuracy and ease of use. Accuracy is a huge problem for any method that relies on human memory and estimates rather than supporting automated real-time capture of time increment records. Billing generated from such data is spurious at best.
Ease of use issues abound in any method requiring interaction with a computer interface in order to capture time intervals. Interacting with a computer, whether a hand-held or desktop machine, generally requires a complete interruption to the task at hand and typically takes several seconds to perhaps minutes to complete. The interruption of workflow and the amount of time required becomes a barrier to using computer-based technologies. As a result, such interfaces tend to be used for minimal data capture, i.e., only capturing billable time or only some of the actual billable time. This limits the usefulness of such products for other sorts of time analysis, for example, personal productivity analysis, time analysis for non-billable workers in support roles, and, most importantly, capturing and analyzing where non-billable time is being spent by billable workers. These ease-of-use barriers also prevent professionals from capturing small increments of time spent on billable projects, such as telephone calls made from the airport or electronic mail messages composed while on a commuter train. The revenue that would otherwise be generated from such activities is therefore lost.
Other ease-of-use problems are slightly different depending on whether a desktop or portable computer is used. Capturing time increment records with a desktop computer is not an appropriate method for those people who need a portable device, such as people whose work requires a lot of roaming around, including consultants who have meetings or work at client sites, technical support personnel who handle service calls at various locations, detectives, sales representatives, librarians, and coaches.
Using a portable computer device for capture gets past the problem of portability, but introduces its own set of problems. There are significant psychological, economic, and technology adoption barriers that limit the utility of portable or hand-held computers. Many professionals who wish to keep their interaction with computers to a minimum do not feel comfortable using such devices, and others cannot afford them. Even those people with access to portable computer devices face many ease-of-use problems. All such devices require two-handed operation and cannot be operated while walking. The entry of a time increment therefore requires the operator to completely interrupt the normal flow of his or her task.
Thus, what is needed is a better way of tracking time that limits the problems of accuracy and ease of use.